Being one of the locals at the university!

Hello everybody,

Unfortunately, we already need to say goodbye to Belarus. It’s our last day but that doesn’t mean we’re not enjoying it. There are still other countries waiting for us!

As Taike already said, we went to Europcar Belarus for renting a car and so we go further travelling by car. The petrol here is really cheap and the prices are all the same in the different stations. This is due to the government. We were very interested in the universities, but we realized that there are a lot of them so we picked one, the Minsk Institute of Management. We made it happen that we could arrange an appointment with the director and we visited the school. The first remark we have is that it’s a very modern building. There are different types of building, a garden but it’s also possible to participate in sports. We were very surprised, because we didn’t expect this. The reason for the different types of building is that there are several faculties. You have the faculty of engineering and information, communications and law, economics and advanced training and retraining “higher school of management”. Because we’re students Marketing, we followed the program “Marketing; qualification of a marketer-economist”. We found it very interesting, but at the end we were very hungry so we decided to visit a restaurant. You’re only once in Belarus so we decided to go for the traditional food, Draniki. This are potato pancakes and the main ingredients are potatoes, which seems logical, flour, chicken egg and cooking oil. It’s not everyone’s favor, but it tasted well. Now it’s time to fill our suitcases and start our trip in Poland. 

I hope you all enjoy our stories and keep on following us!

Stefanie Vanhoele 2MA05
Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minsk_Institute_of_Management 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belarus#Economy

Belarus , the place 2 be for businesspeople ? Lanneer Wout

Today, we thought it would be nice and interesting to take a closer look at the business environment of Belarus.

To get to know something more about the businesses here, we have visited some enterprises such as Coca-Cola and Heineken Breweries. It was immediately clear that there are a lot of international companies over here. So, we investigated some reasons why international companies settled down establishments in Belarus.
These are our conclusions.
The Belarusian government attracts foreign investment and promote international trade. Setting up a company in Belarus has become much easier and quicker than before.
Belarus has a good location, between Europe and Russia, which means that they have a well-developed infrastructure. And the economic system here is quite stable too. We also found out that Belarus is so attractive for international companies because they have a favourable investment climate. This means that there are Free Economic Zones, a High Technology Centre and special tax incentives for businesses operating in rural areas or small towns.

These things have led to Belarus being the home basis for more than 2300 joint venture companies and 2000 foreign enterprises.  60% of the goods produced by these companies are made for export.

I Guess we can say that Belarus is quite a popular country for business companies.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned !

Lanneer Wout

Estimated Time of Arrival : 6.00 am with destination Belarus.Taika De Volder

Hello followers!

We arrived this morning in Belarus and we’re going to stay here for a couple of days. We weren’t shocked by the weather because it’s also very cold in Belgium. Today it was -1°C, but by carrying a warm coat, we’ve made it through the day!

As we arrived, we decided to explore the country immediately! First, we wanted to discover the culture of the country. Me and my friends went to Europcar Belarus to rent a car for a few days. It was our lucky day because we’ve found a car for a very fair price! A few minutes later, in a newsstand, we found a map where we could find the places we have to visit.

Our first stop was the Nesvizh Palace. The palace is considered as one of the most beautiful buildings in Belarus. There were a lot of tourists who wanted to visit the Nesvizh Palace. It was the right decision to visit this place because we were very pleased by the beauty of this place. Even the garden was an attraction to see. By reading some information, we discovered that the Nesvizh Palace has went through a huge reconstruction programme. When I wanted to buy something to drink I was a bit confused! I had to pay 20435.68 ruble for one drink! Later on, I realised that 20435.68 ruble is equal to 1,80 euros! It takes some attention to know what you’ve paid.

When we left the palace, we were still in the mood for some culture. We jumped in the car and our next stop was the Minsk Victory Square. In our map we could see that this place is a square where the people remember the millions that died in the Great Patriotic War. When we walked over the square, a newly married couple was busy taking some beautiful pictures.

Despite of the many things we wanted to do today, we became a little bit tired. We decided to go to our hostel to recover from the long day.

See u soon!

welcome to our blog !

Hello everybody and welcome to this blog !

Me and some friends decided to make a trip around the world last year . We didn’t quite know which countries we were going to visit . But after doing some research we ended up with a trip that will lead us trough some beautiful countries in Europe and Africa.  
We are starting our trip in Belarus. From there on we will head through Poland , Hungary , Greece and many more . We will be visiting 12 countries in total with our final stop in Madagascar.

Really looking forward to this trip we decided to start this blog so we can share our findings about the countries we visit with the world .

We hope you enjoy this blog and the trip we make.

 Greetings from Wout, Taike , Stefanie and Wouter. 

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